Whether MYSPACE lost as many as 50 million user-uploaded songs through its own incompetence or simply dumped them, as more than a few internet pundits believe, is somewhat beside the point. Whether you were aware, until a day or two ago, that MySpace still existed is similarly unimportant. Let's put notions of quality aside as well. Maybe a few of those 50 million songs were as good as the 10,000th-best song currently residing on SOUNDCLOUD and maybe they weren't, but that's not for me, you or MySpace to decide. What matters today is that as many as 50 million songs are gone and that a website that, for better or worse, still wants you to share and entrust your memories with it is responsible for losing them. And having apparently had as long as a year to think of a way to explain itself, the site had exactly this to say: "We apologize for the inconvenience and suggest that you retain your backup copies.” Seriously. A corporate comms office came up with that. Let's take the second half of that first. Yes, everyone who uploads music or photos or poems or diary entries or anything should back it all up if it matters to them. That goes without saying. But here's who else should back everything up: any website that respects the art and memories you bring to it and that wants your continued business. MySpace claims to have lost 12 years' worth of users' music, photos and video during a "server migration project," which, though I'm not an expert, I assume normally would include making backup copies before you start. So, 2018 MySpace, maybe you should have read 2019 MySpace's note before starting that project. And then the other half: "We apologize for the inconvenience"? Um, no. A 24-hour server outage is an inconvenience. A hack is as bigger inconvenience. A "we lost everything you've ever sent us" is something else altogether, and deserves a little more by way of apology and contrition, don't you think? It might even deserve some tangible action. Some tangible reflection, too. Because this is going to happen again. And again. At any number of sites. Do you have backups of every photo you've uploaded to FACEBOOK over the past decade, should those links ever break? Can you recover every video you've uploaded to YOUTUBE? Will you be able to re-create every playlist you've made in SPOTIFY should that company ever decide your playlists aren't as important to it as they are to you? In the past few weeks, for some reason, several friends have posted photos on social media of old favorite mixtapes. The photos are ephemeral digital dust. But the mixtapes are forever—the magnetic tape, the handwritten song titles, the segues, the thought and love behind them. Who do you trust to keep your MP3s, your playlists and your art with just as much love, just as much honor, just as much permanence? Who will earn that trust with tangible action?... SPOTIFY is considering town halls to explain to the songwriting community why it's trying to prevent songwriting royalties from going up. This according to ADVANCED ALTERNATIVE MEDIA's MARK BEAVEN, who, in an open letter to his influential "songwriter family and friends," suggests they "respectfully" not attend unless Spotify includes top songwriting/publishing reps in the presentation. Such as DAVID ISRAELITE of the NATIONAL MUSIC PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION, who has been leading the charge to defend those royalties from Spotify's threats. Which is to say, he's asking for dialog rather than speech. "Streaming services are not villains; they are businesses," Beaven, who's a friend, writes. And they and songwriters "need each other and must find a better way forward"... The RECORDING ACADEMY has narrowed its search for a new leader down to "three to five" finalists... BROOKS & DUNN, RAY STEVENS and JERRY BRADLEY will be inducted into the COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME... TED LEO fronting a DEXYS MIDNIGHT RUNNERS cover band is probably/definitely a thing that should happen in more cities on more ST. PATRICK'S DAYs... If ANDRE WILLIAMS had done nothing more than record these three indescribable minutes, he'd deserve a room in about five different music hall of fames, rap, rock, R&B and garage among them. RIP to the only man who (I'm reasonably sure) ever collaborated with STEVIE WONDER, P-FUNK and the DIRTBOMBS... RIP also BERNIE TORMÉ and ALAN B. KRUEGER.